The Frost Interview

Sir David Frost with "Tricky Dicky"

Early this week, Sir David Frost, 74, the journalist and broadcaster whose lengthy career stretched from cutting-edge 60s satire to heavyweight interviews and celebrity gameshows, died of a heart attack. The world, however, was mesmerised by Obama's turnaround approach to the Syrian situation.

Sir David was larger than life, an extraordinary man bestowed with charm, wit, talent, intelligence and warmth. His many brilliant interviews made a huge impact on television and politics, but none were as riveting as the Nixon interviews.

The Ron Howard movie of the Frost/Nixon interview in 1977 showcased one of 20th century television's most dramatic confessions, thanks to artistic inventions by scriptwriter Peter Morgan. Under Frost's coaxing, Nixon was persuaded to overcome his reticence and put his mea culpa on the record once and for all.

"Yes," said Nixon, "I let the American people down. And I'll have to carry the burden the rest of my life."

Nixon's biographer Jonathan Aitken revealed that the truth was slightly less melodramatic. Ever the master stonewaller, Nixon fulfilled his contractual obligation to sit through all 24 hours of televised interrogation, but he managed to weave a web of maximum tedium and minimum disclosure. Worst of all, he yielded no ground on Watergate; nor did he come anywhere near offering an apology for it. His staff had to gutsy up and tell the boss, "Listen, if this ends the way it has, the world is going to say, there goes the same old Nixon."

Eventually, Nixon was grudgingly convinced, agreed to offer one more additional interviewing session, and conceded that he had participated in the cover up and lied to the world about it.

Back in 1977, Nixon was at rock bottom as a disgraced political pariah in exile, and faced the added indignity of being desperately short of money. Unable to meet his doctors' and lawyers' bills, Nixon was on the verge of no longer being able to pay his staff. Frost's willingness to pay Nixon $600,000 for the interview - around $8 million in today's money - plus 20% of the profits, was a financial lifeline.

Wonder how much Frost will have to pony up to get Lee Kuan Yew to talk. As in really talk, concede how he let the Singapore people down, and have to carry the burden for the rest of his surviving days. The difference here, of course, is that Lee doesn't have to worry about money.

The Great Divide

The tv talk show had posed the question - Citizen-PR gap: Have we widened it too much? When the talking heads were done, 67.8% said no, 32.2 % said yes. In the light of latest developments, one could almost sympathise with the newcomers.

"A" moved from Malaysia to continue his studies for the A-Levels. Got his degree at Nanyang University, married and had a son who completed national service, studied overseas and currently working over there.

"B", also from Malaysia originally, qualified for and obtained his citizenship from Australia, and took up residence here because of work commitments. His two sons have completed national service, one studying in the UK and another is at NUS.

Both "A" and "B" have been permanent residents (PRs) for decades, and never saw the need to take up citizenship. They live in private properties, paid their taxes and higher school fees for the kids. If the measures directed at PRs affect them, they are not significantly perturbed. Singaporeans aren't too upset either, after all, both did not compete for the limited supply of public housing, and took their proper place at the queue for schools.

What the xenophobic are really upset about are the new immigrants who are squeezing out the citizens at the work place, schools, public transportation and subsidized public housing. Immigrants who are brought in just to make up the 6.9 million.

The real divide is not about living harmoniously in Singapore, the real divide is between the planners and the people who are suffocated by the strained infrastructure. It is sad, but the newcomers seeking a better life here need not end up as scapegoats for a flawed government.

The New Normal About Skin

"But if you say I am a stupid fool who doesn't know what I'm talking about, and the Government comprises ministers who don't know what they're talking about and you criticise every policy of the Government, no one can sue you," Law Minister K. Shanmugam expounded to students from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law at a dialogue session.

The first part of the quote spells out what will attract legal action, "If you make a personal allegation of fact, if you say I took money, I am corrupt, I will then sue you and ask you to prove it."

The skin is an ever-changing organ that contains many specialized cells and structures, most of it between 2–3 mm thick. It functions as a protective barrier that interfaces with a sometimes-hostile environment. If any of the structures in the skin are not working properly, a rash or abnormal reaction is the result. That's one good reason when a lawyer's letter of demand is in the mail.

When Lee Hsien Yang was once asked about criticism over the excessive goodwill paid to acquire Optus -  SingTel paid $13 billion for Optus in October 2001 and most of the acquisition was goodwill worth $11.4 billion - he mentioned something about a thick skin. Recently his brother boasted, as one blogger put it, he is a thick-skinned prime minister who is “flame-proof” to cyberspace vitriol against him. ("When you are in the public eye, you flame me, I'm flameproof."). Before you jump to the conclusion that thickness of the epidermal layer is a genetic trait, remember the father has bankrupted many an opponent who dared suggest something negative about his person or office.

"I have sued 15 or 20 times over the last 30-odd years and they come back with the same story that I have been plundering the place, I've enriched myself, and if I had not stopped it each time on its tracks, I would not have survived or enjoyed the reputation and that I think I do enjoy, that I'm prepared to stand up and be  scrutinised." (Interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, 4 June 1995)

For someone who talks much about digging spurs into the hides of Singaporeans, the thickness of his own epidermis measures quite differently:

"Every morning, my task begins with reading five, four now, newspapers. It can be tiresome. I note the scurrilous, the scandalous. I can live with that.  But when any newspaper pours a daily dose of language, cultural or religious poison, I put my knuckle-dusters on. Do not believe you can beat the state." (speech to the Singapore Press Club, Nov 15, 1972)

The moral of the story is to take Shanmugam's words with a large pinch of salt. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating.

The End of The COV Is In Sight

For house hunters, it was sweet music to the ears: "Sell at all cost." Aunt Jen had to downgrade from her private property to a resale flat to finance her son's overseas education. Same week she was house hunting, Education Minister Heng Swee Kiat confirmed that $36 million is spent annually to bring in foreign students who take up limited university places, and later, jobs in our own local market. Most of these are from single child families, whose parents may move into town to take up residence and buy up the same resale flats. Hopefully for residence, not speculation.

What a change one week made. The new 3-year wait for fresh permanent residents (PRs) before they can buy resale flats turned out to be the one cooling measure that had real bite. Sellers are now panicking, according to property agents, "Some sellers are so desperate for "whatever they can get" that they are even agreeing to sell their flats at zero COV." According to the Singapore Estate Exchange (SRX), the had trend started earlier: The number of zero COVs was 14 in January, and tripled to 49 in July.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan once said that the cash over valuation (COV) - cash premiums - for Housing Development (HDB) flats cannot be scrapped as such payments are set by buyers and sellers themselves. Khaw explained it thus:

"COV is the difference between (a) price of flat as agreed between buyer and seller and (b) the valuation of the flat given by a professional valuer. (b) is done by an objective professional. (a) is between buyer and seller. Abolishing COV means removing (a)? Then who sets the price? The professional valuer? Years ago, it was tried. COV then went underground as 'under counter cash payment'."

The "under counter cash payment" scam is traceable all the way back to "cash-back" schemes in 2001, wherein buyers and sellers over-declared the agreed selling price in order for the buyer to get a higher loan either from a bank or the HDB - also referred to in the trade as "over invoicing". The cash surplus would then be illegally divided among the parties involved. Such offences are punishable by a jail term and/or a fine.

What the minister refused to address about the legality of COV, the free market has managed to tame. Khaw's last words on the subject were: "Clearer rules and regulations with penalties and strong enforcement will be enough to check any under counter cash payment." Khaw may have the luxury of time to come out with the penalties and strong enforcement, but ordinary folk can only hold out for so long.

The Price Of Fame

This month, the Marina Bay area is being locked down again for the F-1 night race so that another $150 million can be splurged to make the Singapore skyline "more well known". Quite arguably, the city state is already famous, though not always for good reasons.

Joel Brinkley's recent book, "Cambodia's Curse, The Modern History of a Troubled Land" (Perseus Books Group, 2011) has this mention on page 174:

"...So it was in 2000 when oknya Lao Meng Khin asked to buy the rights to take out the last major forest in  Pursat Province, in south-central Cambodia. They agreed on a price, to be paid directly to Hun Sen.

Another oknya, Ly Yong Phat, is also a wealthy senator, actually bought the right to sell off tons of Cambodian land. Singapore was a veracious purchaser of sand; the city used it as landfill to create more real estate. For years it had bought sand from Indonesia, but sucking it from the bottom of the seabed had caused "very severe environmental damage in many Indonesian islands," the Indonesian Foreign Ministry had said. Indonesia banned sand dredging.

Almost right away, oknya Ly Yong Phat bought the right to begin sucking sand from the bottom of Cambodian rivers and seashores, for sale to Singapore. The Phnom Penh Post reported that sand dredgers were at work inside the Peam Krasp Wildlife Sanctuary, among other places. By the summer of 2010 riverbanks were beginning to collapse, dragging boat piers and outbuildings down into the water."

Eventually, Hun Sen issued a "partial ban" on sand dredging, but loopholes allowed the continued sale of contracts as he pleased.

There is no direct translation for oknya in English. The word has its origins in early Khmer, referring to someone who was a devotee of Siva, the Hindu deity. In modern context, it was roughly defined as one of Prime Minister Hun Sen's wealthy cronies. In 1993, Hun Sen decreed that anyone who donated at least $100,000 for "public works projects" would win the oknya title. Holders of the title did favours for the prime minister, usually taking on building projects that help to enhance his own reputation.

A variety of Cambodians and Cambodia experts agree that fundamental change cannot come until Hun Sen leaves the scene. Installed by the Vietnamese in 1985, he was born in 1952, so he could potentially remain in power into the 2020s or '30s. "In 2013, I will be only 61 years old and still firm," he once proclaimed at a university graduation ceremony, "Even now I have already become the longest ruling prime minister in Asia and made a historical record." The other contender for that title may disagree, having been prime minister from 1965 till 1990, and bestowed other titles like Senior Minister and Minister Mentor to have a tug on the puppet strings for several more years. It's one thing to be famous, it's another to be infamous.